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Again, "Smart Growth" is a hot topic. This week Volusia County and most of its cities agreed to start yet another plan for "smart growth" by controlling future growth to certain areas in the county and limiting environmental impact in others.

Monday, July 14, 2008 13 Central Florida News

DELAND -- Volusia County and most of its cities have agreed to start a plan for "smart growth," limiting growth to certain areas in the county, and limiting the environmental impact to several building corridors.

Forget sprawling homesteads. Your neighbors will be closer. That is just one change in how communities are planned.

"How can we still get the same amount of units in the same development without affecting the environment at the same time? How that's going to happen, that's the big question," said Gregory Blose, with the Volusia Home Builders Association.

The bursting of the real estate bubble has been well documented. However, what can Volusia County and the cities do now? Growth is still happening, but now it will be smarter.Developers are running out of the "easy" places to develop, such as large parcels of farmland.Government leaders and planners will have to begin taking hard looks at the rules in place, and if they should be tweaked as developments move beyond the usual corridors.

"We want to encourage good development that has minimum impact on the environment, but in order to eventually pull something like that off, we should -- we, as the government, should look for a way to make that happen a little easier than we currently are," Blose said.

Easing the rules does not come easy. Development near the historic Ormond Beach Loop is a touchy subject, and later in week, the Volusia County Council will be reminded just what the rules regarding cutting of larger, "historic" trees are on the books.

The outline of Volusia County's smart growth plan was approved by the county and 15 of the 16 municipalities in 2007.

Somehow they have forgotten that the Florida Growth Management Act of 1985 (the "GMA", contained within Florida Statutes Ch. 163) already took care of all these things. But the law is not followed by many municipalities. The issue is not one of enacting more ordinances or laws but of enforcing the ones we have and ensuring that the public officials entrusted with the police power to administer zoning and land use, just abide by the rule of law.

This should not be so complicated; You have a law, you follow it. But in practice, corruption gets in the way.

The Hometown Democracy grass roots movement was born as result of abuses perpetrated by public officials in defiance of the GMA, with Daytona Beach as one of the worst violators in the state. The group has enjoyed such a surge in popularity and support that its Hometown Democracy Amendment will likely be on the ballot later this year. They put out an interesting video that illustrates the intent of the GMA.

There would not be a need for any grass roots movements like the Hometown Democracy if only the Growth Management Act was followed and enforced. The law is very clear as to what are the criteria for land use amendments and rezonings. The problem comes when some corrupt commissioner, too inept to see the difference and too often with a predisposition for malfeasance, just grants or denies zoning on the fly acting per instructions from her campaign financer or political patron. The city attorney remains silent at the abuse, and the aggrieved party is forced to request judicial redress ( but only if it can afford the high cost of admission to the judicial system, an impossible maze to navigate by any layman).

In Daytona Beach, when the lawsuit comes in Circuit Court (usually in the form of a toothless Certiorari Proceeding), an elected judge, often financed by the same patron that financed the corrupt commissioner, sides with the status quo rather than make any waves. God forbid he ever upset his campaign supporters!.

This is a broken system and the cost has been dear to Daytona Beach citizens. The damage is reflected in the city's poor economic base, the lack of infrastructure, job opportunities and investment, and the overall moral breakdown we see everyday. Whether or not the Hometown Democracy Amendment passes, the problem will remain: ensuring public officials obey the laws they are entrusted to protect, and prosecuting the ones that do not.

Now with Tanner gone, the hope is that corruption of public officials will again be prosecuted with the priority it merits. Corruption is a crime and the damage it causes to society is even greater than the damage of other crimes such as murder.

It is time that prosecuting fraud and malfeasance by public officials be taken as as the crime this is and not pushed under the rug as Tanner's cronies, the beneficiaries of corruption in city hall, often asked him to do.

To the writer of the article:First of all I, I suggest you take a sharp left back to The Basics of Government, because presently you have neither the tools, nor etiquette necessary for political presentation. Simplified, the language of the Constitution and the Declaration is as beautiful as the penmanship and the message. Try reading it again and if you just don’t get it, STOP ! You shouldn’t engage publicly in any government topic. The Floridian you described obviously got the message you missed in 101. Whether you like it or not, even the ‘toothless’ have the right of speech and to lobby.Whether from being knocked out or from documented toxins. Buried first in the ground, later in a file. I’m guessing someone made it possible for ‘them’ to afford bottled water. We the toothless are left to what our local municipals call safe drinking water.

Every Floridian is responsible to work, pay taxes, participate in their government and hopefully vote.If you had any loyalty to Florida at all this is NOT what you want the Country to envision when they think of Florida, so why would you refer to anyone in this kind of negative.

My final redirection is this. Next time you presume to guess who you think “probably” did what and cheap personal remarks because you disagree with them in print, address the article as to an “author” so we know who we are dealing with (or not) when we come across these cheap tactics again. As it is I think the whole thing, comments and all is a lot of tripe. Any journalist finding anything worth writing about IS NOT going to print, without their name on that work !I have come to recognize this kind of post as political magic beans. Thoughts and messages strategically placed to sprout as cattle feed. Drive them out of the ‘Hall‘ with defacement. Shame them into believing that they have no voice if they didn’t vote! That is NOT written in the Constitution of the United States !* "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Understandably our time constricted lives have become dependent on searching the net for the “important” bytes of news; however, this stuff, even the commented posts, are nothing but magic beans. First rule; no author / no credibility.

That being said, people PLEASE we are NOT cattle. We’ve become a ‘have and have not’ nation in depression and not a dollar was necessary. All it took was the depression of our personal values and a few magic beans.I’m not talking about college courses. I’m saying that we don’t even know who these people were before they were ’they’ the councils and boards.If we did we would know that they were no more than you or I. They were realtors, bankers, accountants. We all have our talents, true. But they were also just hardworking people. Councilman Brown has a book store on US1. He sells books, go talk to him! He breaths and bleeds and talks like a regular guy. Still to date, the only true City Official that has walked those halls, or these streets since my moving here almost nine years ago.He visited, said “Hello” and PATRONED business’ newly opened. He ASKED how everything was going and if there was anything he could do to facilitate resolve, if needed. It’s been said that doesn’t mean he really cared. Well I can only hope for that, but he did what no other has. He went out to where it was happening, in the people. Just a regular guy, who knew that an Officials first priority was to be a in SERVICE !Not just sitting there on a throne, with thirty agenda’s and twelve meetings as record for his term. Incidently, do we know how many times they should be meeting? We should know because .... wow.Local service doesn’t mean the Presidency. It’s simple knowledge from reading, attending, joining, doing and being familiar. Exposure will diminish the veil, in separation, in depression of will and in depressed livelihood. We don’t even have to serve office. Speak out to your groups, neighbors and family. Get the calendar of agenda’s for all councils. LOBBY ! ASK QUESTIONS - don't just complain.The next time they say that 'Edgewater Citizen's attended a ...... ' I want to think they really did !If you can’t attend regularly, assign at least one family, or group member to attend meetings, but for the love of God and family PAY ATTENTION. I have learned my lesson !Did you know that each state has it’s own Constitution? Did you know that back in the 90’s amendments were added ours that allow the State, County and City government to supercede and even act without our vote? As long as they voted that it was in our best interest. Moreover, they have written themselves out of the condition. If anything goes wrong with anything they can not be held liable.Did you know that this whole story of “2008 Plan” is moot ? The creation of this plan began in the 90’s put to written format by 2000, refined and taught for Local Governmental practice by 2002 and the completion of the “plan” was designed by the engineers and are ready for them to build in 2004. Long before the supposed “Envision Edgewater” September 9th and 20th this year when “Edgewater’s Citizens” chose how they thought Edgewater should be designed.This is all a sham to dazzle us and push all of the information thru our heads quickly, while no one is wiser. Did you see that although 2 of the 4 front pages of a local news paper in October was coverage of major proportions. It gave yield to powerful decisions demanded from New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater.While I was never really able to pinpoint a single question, nor even actual issue, they did come to a decision. Though I’m still not certain how that is going to effect us, since I still don’t know precisely what they were talking about. BUT it was a grand stage, wasn’t it? Paine said more than 200 years ago, they Dazzle us with wonder and make us forget that we pay taxes.Did you know that there is an extermination planned for everyone and everything within a total of almost 5 acres from Pearl Street north AND from Old County Road going to the river? They requested and approved 3 plus acres west of US 1 and 1 pkus acres east of US 1.Thats 8,500 people according to the paper! They have a trailer park in the plans too.Where else will they put ‘Edgewater Acres’ ?See topic paper on the internet and look for ‘Volusia County requests 21 day stay for 8,500 residents.’ That wasn’t to be nice ! That’s because I didn’t close my door and walk out like I was supposed to. The way I see it is, they need mine before they can get to you.You know me and suits.

Did you know that all the ‘Big Business’ banks and of course the municipalities were allowed to plan for this ‘big plan’ but we weren’t. How many people’s lives would knowing this have changed. How many people could have - should have been able to refinance with these things to bring up the value.Not any ‘citizen’ that I know of is gaining from this.My balloon was due October 2008 - you know I’m not getting refied when they know the County would come in and offer me only what they have it appraised at.Well this is giving you all a ‘second’ to DO SOMETHING !

Did you know that YOU Edgewater is already 50 million dollars in debt, before they even start another project? Don’t forget they are not liable. They will serve their term and move on, leaving YOU to pay this off.

Did you know that the $500,000 counted in the budget and voted toward the animal clinic/facility 2 years ago is still not given over.

The $200,000 and some counted in the budget and voted toward the shuffle board court - was it 4 years ago? is still not built?

Did you know that all the plats in Volusia County are already replotted and renamed?Let me direct you to a handy tool.Go to www.volusia.govClick the drop down box and go to Clerk of Court and push ‘go’Once there, click on search public recordsFrom there, click on platsYou look all the way thru and see if you can find your plat, in the original description. There are only a few, the Shores being one of them; however, if you look at the maps, you will see that even the Shores have been re - subdivided.Go back to the Drop down list and choose the Property Appraisers office and push ‘go’Scroll down a little and see property search and clickPick any way in, if one fails another won’tSee your name in the list and click on your propertyPull up your Deed and go to the bottom of the pageThere you will see “map it and Palms and Map Kiosk”Play with them and open your eyes. Be sure to at least use Palms and click on subdivisions. Use the pan button to scroll around the county. Before you are finished you will see what I say is true.

How do I know all of this - if you know me and the unusual series of events that have happened since our opening, then you know I’ve been trying to find my aggressor for several years. Once found, my quest was to find out why. Well I knew for sure the moment I saw my parcel in the middle of their new ‘Edgewater Heights’ City Hall area I guess. I balled.

* "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from his government."

It is time for you to get back into YOUR Hall !It is time for you to take care of your own dirty work ! Stop giving it over to others, because they will take your offer !It is time for you to take a stand !

You better start with a vote on the open ended check they’ve written on your tab and get a grip on your Constitution !In case no one noticed, I believe that changing legislation without the people is treason !I’m not sure that can stand against the Constitution of the United States. In fact I wonder the act itself was - dare I say it ? Treason ! If not then treasonous. Just because they say it, doesn’t necessarily make it so.Call the Senator - Call Congress - Call your lawyer -

Something is going to happen regardless. Come on, you’ve already spent to much not to do some of it at least.Some of it is GRAND and will be good for Edgewater. Some of it is GRANDEOS, overdone and costly. Hopefully someone can sort it out and find a more affordable way without wasting to much from the engineering.But if you don’t take it and make it yours, you’ll want to puke every time you see it.Listen Edgewater, I had about no room left. I’m on the edge of HA - water !They are NOT going to be happy, so use this - change this treacherous place.It must have been good here once, because I’ve never met as many people that I will remember as long as I will you.

HOWLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL at the MOON !!!!!!!!

Oh and as I take a bow (wow) ****

Signed,Doggy Po Po

P.S. There’s a lot more. Watch for my posting a plethora of maps and plans and meetings with dates.

P. S. S. I have taken in a lot of knowlege, so please parden me to say this is my opinion and is left to the reader to seek public information to confirm or deny.If you seek the truth, do the work, don't ask.

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